I am agnostic re Louise Mensch.

I found the Senate testimony last week of Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian journalist and dissident who has survived two poisoning attempts by the Putin regime, to be quite compelling. His point---which does not receive nearly enough airtime in the US--is that the Magnitzky sanctions put in place by the US in 2012 are effective and highly threatening to the Putin regime because they target the individual fortunes of the oligarchs.

Kara-Murza opined that unlike the Politboro under Soviet communism, the 21st century Russian oligarchs devote a lot of effort to squirreling funds away in Western countries. The Magnitzsky sanctions, if I am understanding correctly, permit the US to ban named individuals from doing business with US businesses and financial institutions.

That's a pretty powerful motivator for Russia to try to manipulate our presidential election.

jsteele wrote:Right off the bat there is a big problem with this article. The server in question was not in Trump Tower. The server had been used by the Trump Organization, but it was located elsewhere. This article draws on the theories of Louise Mensch. I implore everyone to approach Mensch the same way you would a Russian troll. She is not a credible source and relying on her will only serve to discredit you.

It's not possible to rely on anyone theorizing on the internet, because if all the facts were known this mess would be resolved. I think Mensch leans too heavily on Putin directing all of this, when it's clear there are many more parties involved.

But a lot what she says jives with what is known. Russia influenced the election to favor Trump, and Trump has been unusually favorable to Putin. With the lack of transparency on Trump's business and finances and the fact that he's the very antithesis of altruism, it's hard not to see some meaning in some of her theories.

And unlike Russian trolls, she's not hiding herself nor her intentions.

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:Right off the bat there is a big problem with this article. The server in question was not in Trump Tower. The server had been used by the Trump Organization, but it was located elsewhere. This article draws on the theories of Louise Mensch. I implore everyone to approach Mensch the same way you would a Russian troll. She is not a credible source and relying on her will only serve to discredit you.

Can you expand on that? I had considered her a fairly credible source, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Mensch has essentially become a conspiracy theorist and, like most conspiracy theorists, fits facts into her narrative rather than fitting her narrative around facts. The Trump/Russia stuff is very complicated with a lot of misinformation being circulated. Mensch often latches onto things that are simply wrong and also gets things that she misunderstands wrong. One of her more outlandish theories is that the Russians killed Andrew Breitbart:

http://www.alternet.org/media/new-media-darling-louise-mensch-believes-putin-killed-andrew-breitbart-and-much-more

This link also lists other crazy ideas she has.

I haven't been acquainted with her for very long, and I'm not a fan of conspiracy theorists in general, but she's made some accurate predictions lately. Regardless of your feelings about her, this article does potentially connect some dots that seem very problematic for the Trump administration.

It is easy to connect dots if you just make them up. For instance, saying a server that was not in Trump Tower was in Trump Tower.

Fair enough, can you provide a link? Also, do you have any thoughts regarding the Alfa Bank/SCL/Cambridge Analytica stuff, unrelated to Mensch? Or do you think the whole thing is fictional? I'm truly interested in hearing other peoples' opinions on this.

"Publicly available internet records show that address, which was registered to the Trump Organization, points to an IP address that lives on an otherwise dull machine operated by a company in the tiny rural town of Lititz, Pennsylvania."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/09/politics/fbi-investigation-continues-into-odd-computer-link-between-russian-bank-and-trump-organization/

I don't know enough about Alpha Bank to comment.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:Right off the bat there is a big problem with this article. The server in question was not in Trump Tower. The server had been used by the Trump Organization, but it was located elsewhere. This article draws on the theories of Louise Mensch. I implore everyone to approach Mensch the same way you would a Russian troll. She is not a credible source and relying on her will only serve to discredit you.

Can you expand on that? I had considered her a fairly credible source, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Mensch has essentially become a conspiracy theorist and, like most conspiracy theorists, fits facts into her narrative rather than fitting her narrative around facts. The Trump/Russia stuff is very complicated with a lot of misinformation being circulated. Mensch often latches onto things that are simply wrong and also gets things that she misunderstands wrong. One of her more outlandish theories is that the Russians killed Andrew Breitbart:

http://www.alternet.org/media/new-media-darling-louise-mensch-believes-putin-killed-andrew-breitbart-and-much-more

This link also lists other crazy ideas she has.

I haven't been acquainted with her for very long, and I'm not a fan of conspiracy theorists in general, but she's made some accurate predictions lately. Regardless of your feelings about her, this article does potentially connect some dots that seem very problematic for the Trump administration.

It is easy to connect dots if you just make them up. For instance, saying a server that was not in Trump Tower was in Trump Tower.

Fair enough, can you provide a link? Also, do you have any thoughts regarding the Alfa Bank/SCL/Cambridge Analytica stuff, unrelated to Mensch? Or do you think the whole thing is fictional? I'm truly interested in hearing other peoples' opinions on this.

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:Right off the bat there is a big problem with this article. The server in question was not in Trump Tower. The server had been used by the Trump Organization, but it was located elsewhere. This article draws on the theories of Louise Mensch. I implore everyone to approach Mensch the same way you would a Russian troll. She is not a credible source and relying on her will only serve to discredit you.

Can you expand on that? I had considered her a fairly credible source, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Mensch has essentially become a conspiracy theorist and, like most conspiracy theorists, fits facts into her narrative rather than fitting her narrative around facts. The Trump/Russia stuff is very complicated with a lot of misinformation being circulated. Mensch often latches onto things that are simply wrong and also gets things that she misunderstands wrong. One of her more outlandish theories is that the Russians killed Andrew Breitbart:

http://www.alternet.org/media/new-media-darling-louise-mensch-believes-putin-killed-andrew-breitbart-and-much-more

This link also lists other crazy ideas she has.

I haven't been acquainted with her for very long, and I'm not a fan of conspiracy theorists in general, but she's made some accurate predictions lately. Regardless of your feelings about her, this article does potentially connect some dots that seem very problematic for the Trump administration.

It is easy to connect dots if you just make them up. For instance, saying a server that was not in Trump Tower was in Trump Tower.

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:Right off the bat there is a big problem with this article. The server in question was not in Trump Tower. The server had been used by the Trump Organization, but it was located elsewhere. This article draws on the theories of Louise Mensch. I implore everyone to approach Mensch the same way you would a Russian troll. She is not a credible source and relying on her will only serve to discredit you.

Of course it draws on the theories of Louise Mensch. She wrote it.

It is under a pseudonym that I didn't know was her's. But I certainly recognized the content.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:Right off the bat there is a big problem with this article. The server in question was not in Trump Tower. The server had been used by the Trump Organization, but it was located elsewhere. This article draws on the theories of Louise Mensch. I implore everyone to approach Mensch the same way you would a Russian troll. She is not a credible source and relying on her will only serve to discredit you.

Can you expand on that? I had considered her a fairly credible source, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Mensch has essentially become a conspiracy theorist and, like most conspiracy theorists, fits facts into her narrative rather than fitting her narrative around facts. The Trump/Russia stuff is very complicated with a lot of misinformation being circulated. Mensch often latches onto things that are simply wrong and also gets things that she misunderstands wrong. One of her more outlandish theories is that the Russians killed Andrew Breitbart:

http://www.alternet.org/media/new-media-darling-louise-mensch-believes-putin-killed-andrew-breitbart-and-much-more

This link also lists other crazy ideas she has.

I haven't been acquainted with her for very long, and I'm not a fan of conspiracy theorists in general, but she's made some accurate predictions lately. Regardless of your feelings about her, this article does potentially connect some dots that seem very problematic for the Trump administration.

jsteele wrote:Right off the bat there is a big problem with this article. The server in question was not in Trump Tower. The server had been used by the Trump Organization, but it was located elsewhere. This article draws on the theories of Louise Mensch. I implore everyone to approach Mensch the same way you would a Russian troll. She is not a credible source and relying on her will only serve to discredit you.

Of course it draws on the theories of Louise Mensch. She wrote it.

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:Right off the bat there is a big problem with this article. The server in question was not in Trump Tower. The server had been used by the Trump Organization, but it was located elsewhere. This article draws on the theories of Louise Mensch. I implore everyone to approach Mensch the same way you would a Russian troll. She is not a credible source and relying on her will only serve to discredit you.

Can you expand on that? I had considered her a fairly credible source, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Mensch has essentially become a conspiracy theorist and, like most conspiracy theorists, fits facts into her narrative rather than fitting her narrative around facts. The Trump/Russia stuff is very complicated with a lot of misinformation being circulated. Mensch often latches onto things that are simply wrong and also gets things that she misunderstands wrong. One of her more outlandish theories is that the Russians killed Andrew Breitbart:

http://www.alternet.org/media/new-media-darling-louise-mensch-believes-putin-killed-andrew-breitbart-and-much-more

This link also lists other crazy ideas she has.

Dang. I just looked at the Wikipedia article on SCL and they are creepy AF.

There is a whole list of source citations and references at the end of the article, which do not include Mensch.

jsteele wrote:Right off the bat there is a big problem with this article. The server in question was not in Trump Tower. The server had been used by the Trump Organization, but it was located elsewhere. This article draws on the theories of Louise Mensch. I implore everyone to approach Mensch the same way you would a Russian troll. She is not a credible source and relying on her will only serve to discredit you.

Can you expand on that? I had considered her a fairly credible source, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Interesting - shows up here as well. http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/211152/trump-data-analytics-russian-access


Mercer has been a heavy funder of Cambridge Analytica and Bannon served on its board but I wasn't aware of the Alfa Bank connection.

Right off the bat there is a big problem with this article. The server in question was not in Trump Tower. The server had been used by the Trump Organization, but it was located elsewhere. This article draws on the theories of Louise Mensch. I implore everyone to approach Mensch the same way you would a Russian troll. She is not a credible source and relying on her will only serve to discredit you.

Someone else mentioned this, but it really deserves its own thread. A theory on what's actually going on behind the scenes of the Trump/Russia mess: https://patribotics.blog/2017/04/01/alfa-bank-trump-tower-and-a-social-media-impeachment/